Proteomic and physiological approach reveals drought-induced changes in rapeseeds: Water-saver and water-spender strategy
Abstract
The cultivar-dependent differences in Brassica napus L. seed yield are significantly affected by drought stress. Here, the response of leaf proteome to long-term drought (28 days) was studied in cultivars (cvs): Californium (C), Cadeli (D), Navajo (N), and Viking (V).
Analysis of twenty-four 2-D DICE gels revealed 134 spots quantitatively changed at least 2-fold; from these, 79 proteins were significantly identified by MALDI-TOFTOF. According to the differences in water use, the cultivars may be assigned to two categories: water-savers or water-spenders.
In the water-savers group (cvs C + D), proteins related to nitrogen assimilation, ATP and redox homeostasis were increased under stress, while in the water-spenders category (cvs N + V), carbohydrate/energy, photosynthesis, stress related and rRNA processing proteins were increased upon stress. Taking all data together, we indicated cv C as a drought-adaptable water-saver, cv D as a medium-adaptable water-saver, cv N as a drought-adaptable water-spender, and cv V as a low-adaptable drought sensitive water-spender rapeseed.
Proteomic data help to evaluate the impact of drought and the extent of genotype-based adaptability and contribute to the understanding of their plasticity. These results provide new insights into the provenience-based drought acclimation/adaptation strategy of contrasting winter rapeseeds and link data at gasometric, biochemical, and proteome level.
Significance: Soil moisture deficit is a real problem for every crop. The data in this study demonstrates for the first time that in stem-prolongation phase cultivars respond to progressive drought in different ways and at different levels.
Analysis of physiological and proteomic data showed two different water regime-related strategies: water-savers and spenders.